Ladies, gentlekin and cryptids of all shapes and kinds, welcome I bid you to my first ever published writing on this esteemed website. This is something I have been very reserved about putting up here. I have never posted on here and, from what I have seen, my writing abilities are not up to par for this website. This first, short chapter is definitely rough and I am still learning the ropes of this website. Hope you all enjoy it, for what a first, beginner's chapter is worth!

I remain your obedient servant,

Thrash Evaine Lovelocke

Things had calmed back down to a sense of normality ever since the first case she had. She definitely enjoyed the new norm at first but soon it became boring. It was a high point if she was told to track down a bank robber in the canopies of the Rainforest District. Officer Judith Laverne Hopps: Prodigy of the Zootopian Police Department, Champion of small mammals, The Precursor Rabbit Officer. It mattered not the title you knew her by, her name was bound to have reached your ears if you lived anywhere in or near the bustling metropolis of Zootopia. She was known by name to the entire city for her incredible accomplishment of solving the issue of the Bellweather Scandal only three days into her official career. Since that time, crime activity had been diminished in a sense. It was as though the Zootopian police had managed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals at last. If one were to ask Chief of Police Mason Bogo why this was so he would deny the truth if he at all could. He had come to respect Judy for her impressive work but was still reluctant to praise her for being the sole weapon against the former politician's schemes. Despite all that, Judy was happy with her job. Which was good because she was insanely bored right now.

Yet again, she and Nick had been posted on patrol. The streets of Savanna Central were just as calm as was usual. Judy knew crime was sparse right now, relatively at least, but she still hoped and pleaded for something to happen. Nothing too major, just a small shoplifting or something of that caliber. "Carrots! Oh, my God!"

"What? What?" Judy asked as she instinctively pressed her paws to the wheel and readied her foot to press down on the accelerator.

"Siobhan O'Terrapin released a new single three days ago!" Nick smiled fiendishly at Judy's state.

Frustrated by Nick's brazenness, Judy slammed her hand on the steering wheel. "Nick, I'm going to kill you! What's the big deal about that anyway?"

"She's only one of the greatest artists in our entire generation and I missed the opportunity to get her new single for half-off on Spawtify. I hate it when I miss these things," he said with a stretch as he placed his arms behind his head.

Judy's paws slowly relaxed as she began to fall back into her seat. She wasn't totally mad at Nick anymore. She was more upset that nothing had happened. She was so excited for something to occur. Her ears flopped down and she opened up her phone. She contemplated playing something off her Gazelle playlist before she glanced up and saw the ZNN news icon in the corner of her screen. She opened the article to find what passed for excitement in Zootopia's crime fighting world right now.

Precinct Three Triumphs

Yet another outstanding performance by Zootopia's Precinct Three today as Inspector Janus Pryclaw thwarts a stickup made at a local drugstore in Tundratown. The perpetrators, a pair of local tigers, were taken into custody at 10:30 this morning. Inspector Pryclaw commented on the current situation saying, "I am rather surprised at the fact that it occurred. I assumed that the so called 'crime halt' would take longer to end. Precinct One's incredible performance with the Bellweather Scandal has allowed the different branches a much-needed rest. It is good to have all of our missing mammals back. I have noticed a predictable relationship between the return of these mammals and an increase in support of the Zootopian Police. This is good, in my opinion. Crime rates are at an all-time low."

"Yeah, you're welcome," Judy spoke somewhat bitterly. Precinct Three was the branch in charge of Tundratown and they were notoriously secretive. In all truth and honesty, Judy normally did not care about them one way or another but something about their recent rising star made her upset.

Nick took a lick of his pawpsicle. They had become ironically popular after his lawfully controversial hustling scheme fell apart. "Is something bugging you, Carrots?"

Judy nodded with a scowl on her face. "Janus over in Precinct Three again. I can't help wondering what's so special about putting a quick stop to a couple of stickups. I mean, yeah, it's all for the good of Zootopia but they seem to be blowing it out of proportion a bit. He's a wolf who's just as capable an officer as anybody else."

Something seemed to be funny as Nick chuckled at her. "Could it be possible that you, Judy Hopps, are jealous of Inspector Pryclaw?"

A gasp came out of Judy at this. "Give me one reason I should be jealous of him! He's nothing special. Just lucky, really."

Nick raised his paws in a surrendering fashion. "Calm down, fluff. I was just kidding. In all seriousness though, it has nothing to do with popularity. The press is desperate. Nothing exciting has been happening lately. Way I see it, Precinct Three should be mad. Nobody in the ZPD really wants all that attention from the newspapers. It gets kind of annoying."

"I guess. Still though, I am getting sick of hearing his name all over the place. I would give a lot just to see a week go by without having to see Janus's smug expression on the pages," Judy scoffed as she shut off her phone. This was the worst way to spend their day. She thought that she heard a store's alarm going off rather suddenly. "Nick, call it in. It sounds like we may have… a…"

The sudden lack of noise and Nick's bewildered expression made her realize her mistake. "Have a what, Carrots?" Nick gave her a look like she was insane.

Judy was suddenly embarrassed at her outburst. "Nothing. I… nothing. How much longer is our shift?"

Still with a skeptical look, Nick glanced at his watch. "We're off the clock in thirty. I'm sure Chief Buff Bison won't mind if we took a little moment to allow ourselves some relief."

A shared glance at each other and Judy understood immediately. "Buckstars for some coffee?"

"I do not know what I would do without you."

Judy chuckled and responded with a joke. "You'd learn to drive." The cunning grin on her face made Nick smile at her. It was such a fitting expression for her personality. With a turn of the key, their patrol car came to life and they made their way down the street to the nearby coffee shop. Their order was simple: a pair of caramel lattes. Nick, however, had the ever-odd habit of replacing marshmallows in his hot drinks with blueberries. Judy was fond of blueberries as well but her fluffy-tailed partner was a practical fanatic for them. "Why would you ruin this perfectly good beverage with something like blueberries? Why not just order a blueberry mocha latte? It would save you the trouble of having to commit crimes against Buckstars's hard work."

A laugh came from Nick as he took a bite of his, predictable, blueberry cookie. He kicked his boots off on the floorboard and propped his feet on the dashboard. "Because, you don't get caramel in a normal blueberry mocha. I know Buckstars inside and out. You have to play their game of specifics to get what you want out of them."

"Okay, calm down, crime boss…" Judy chuckled, "… It's a coffeehouse. I can almost guarantee they aren't out to get you for your orders. Why not just order something with a twist? They're pros. They can handle it."

"And go against my favori… one of my favorite ways to annoy you?"

Judy raised a humored eyebrow at Nick's comment. "One of your favorites? What all are your favorites?"

An amused smile crept to Nick Wilde's muzzle. "It depends on what mood I'm in. Sometimes it needs to be something that can make you blush, other times it needs to be something that can just make you cringe."

Judy bit her lip in contemplation at his words. She had known him long enough now to figure out how terrible a flirt he was. "You? Make me blush?" Judy scoffed dismissively. "You can't outthink me, let alone win me over in sweet talk."

Sipping his coffee loudly, Nick looked out the window and pretended to ignore Judy's pathetically obvious lie. The obnoxious noise made her ears recoil in annoyance. "Ok. Ok! I get the idea."

"You need to learn to stop trying to be funnier, smoother, trickier, or more annoying than me. None of those things fit you, sweetheart."

"This is coming from a second-rate, popsicle-hustling hitchhiker who is the only officer in the entire ZPD without a driver's license," Judy teased.

Nick retorted with just as much ease. "Who showed up to the cop scene two semesters after you and still has more friends in the department."

Judy's nose twitched in annoyance, but she could not help smiling. "Ok, you win. That was pretty good. I know when I'm beat." It was true that Nick Wilde had essentially materialized out of thin air to the majority of the ZPD. His charisma filled Precinct One with so much joy. That joy began turning to impatience soon afterwards and a few of the officers became something akin to paranoid every time they walked into the bullpen or into the locker rooms or even into their individual offices. Several of them did not let themselves succumb to the fear of Nick's pranks and began to retaliate. It was but about a week ago that Nick crossed the lioness Nala Nobleheart and regretted it shortly thereafter. Nala had presented herself as generally patient and astoundingly wise, but it was proven that one did not get away with pulling a fast one on her. It was a long story that involved blueberry pie laced with a generous helping of pepper dust crust, but Nick resolved to be very careful about Nala after that.

With a yawn, Nick leaned back in his seat. "Time's almost up. Should we return to base, captain?" Nick asked with a humorously dramatized voice.

After taking a second to laugh, Judy responded with, "Aye, soldier. Let's go home."

The drive to Precinct One from their current location was not a long one and it would have been even shorter were it not for a monitor lizard toddler wandering into the street. The toddler admitted he had gotten lost and the two officers returned him to what he said was his home. It was not a particularly flattering abode. The walls were faded and looked ancient. The roof was clearly in desperate need of repair and the foundation looked like it had cracks in it that dated back to before the Ocean Districts were built. Despite their disdain at the appearance of the place, Judy and Nick let the toddler go. He turned around and gave them a hug before he departed and said, "I remember seeing you on TV. My name is Goga. I'm really happy to meet you."

"Yeah. You too, kid," Nick responded awkwardly.

His female counterpart rolled her eyes as she hugged the lizard more tightly and answered more comfortably, "We're happy to meet you too, little Goga."

The reptilian child fled into the house, likely searching for his mother. After seeing him enter the building safely, they returned to the patrol car and finally released the words they had held for when they were in private. Judy went first. "Wow. That had to be one of the worst constructed structures in the whole city. Nobody should have to live in a place like that."

"Oh, yes. Because the Grand Pangolin Arms is the height of society," Nick retorted.

"Touché," Judy admitted, "Still, that poor child. He deserves better."

Nodding in agreement, Nick reminisced about his childhood. The place his mother eked out a living for was not exactly The Kitz. "Hey, who knows? Maybe he'll grow up to be a hero like us."

"One can hope, can't one?" Judy chuckled. She shifted the gear out of park and pressed on the pedal lightly to ignite the car into motion. Next stop: Precinct One.

Upon arriving back at the precinct, it was nigh time for the two of them to be heading home. Nick managed to convince Judy to drop him off at the front while she moved around back to park their car in its designated place. She sighed as she removed the key from the ignition and picked up what little was left of her drink. She sipped it until it was nearly dry and exited the vehicle. As she shut the door and prepared to turn around and walk to the building, a chuckle sounded from behind her. Judy's instincts prompted her to turn and reach immediately for her stun gun, but as she focused on who it was behind her she relaxed. Standing next to a different car were Nala and Shenzi-Marie ya Fisi. Shenzi-Marie was, indeed, a hyena that had a history with Nala's family. At first, they were regarded as enemies due to a feud that had been started by Nala's uncle-in-law. However, as the reason behind the feud was revealed, Shenzi-Marie and her husband, Banzai, worked with Nala and her husband, Simba, to convince their clans to drop the violence. Ironically, Shenzi-Marie and Nala had become quite close since then. Banzai and Simba remained somewhat distant but tolerated each other. They worked at different jobs.

Nala held her hands up. "Whoa! Easy, Officer. I mean you no harm."

Judy slowly relaxed and groaned. "You know, you two are going to get yourselves hurt if you keep up with that sneaking up routine."

The shrill laugh from Shenzi-Marie nearly hurt Judy's ears as she spoke with her well-renowned sass. "Honey, you don't give us enough credit. We know you aren't prone to panic."

"Still, you should stop that. What did you girls need?" Judy asked with a sigh.

"Oh, Nals and I were just watching as you pulled in. Where's yer partner?" Shenzi-Marie asked mischievously.

"He's up front. Why?" Judy asked casually. She already knew where this was leading, but she decided to play dumb. If she took the defensive stance too early, she would look even more suspicious of the crime she was about to be accused of.

Nala huffed. "That is adorable. I haven't dropped my husband off anywhere before."

There it was. Judy gave a chuckle like what Nala said was stupid. "Hardee-harr. You two are so mature."

"Thanks, we like to think so," Shenzi-Marie chortled. "So, lady, you think he'll make the first move?"

Judy rolled her eyes, "Drop off, Shenzi. I don't know why I bother trying to say this because you two will just deny it, bet we're…"

"Just friends?" The other girls said simultaneously. Nala shook her head as Shenzi-Marie laughed again. True to Judy's suspicion, it was obvious that they did not believe her when she tried to defend herself.

"Not to say I don't believe you, but I don't," Nala smirked, "You two do everything together. You patrol together."

"You eat together," Shenzi-Marie added.

"You come into work together."

"You clock out together."

Again, Nala laughed. "In fact, what don't you two do together?"

Squinting an eye as if in deep contemplation, Judy chuckled. "Well, we don't live together."

"But, he did move to the Pangolin Arms, didn't he?" Shenzi-Marie countered.

Judy rolled her eyes annoyedly. "He was down on cash, I told him it was affordable, he moved into an apartment the flight above mine. Is that really such a big deal?"

Nala searched her mind for another way to call Judy out, "Funny. He seems to be financially sound enough to afford all those blueberries."

"There's a difference between the price of blueberries and rent on an apartment."

Now, Shenzi-Marie argued. Hyenas were notorious for being bargain hunters. Her clan, under the management of herself and Banzai, were always playing the stock market of Zootopia and were well versed in the intricacies of anything involving monetary value. "Hardly anymore. Blueberries are in high demand with increasingly smaller supply. Considering the prices right now, he could afford a penthouse in The Kitz with how many berries he buys."

There was definitely exaggeration in that statement and Judy was more than willing to acknowledge it. "In that case, I should buy one for myself. I make even more money than he does."

Shenzi-Marie snorted. "Okay, honey. Maybe The Kitz is a bad example. Still, though, there were other options. Some closer to where he was already staying, too."

Judy opted to repeat her brush off from earlier. "Oh, drop off." She looked at the sky to see a darker shade of orange than she remembered seeing before. "Now, as much as I have enjoyed this intellectually stimulating conversation, I think it's past my time to go." And she turned to leave.

The hyena and lioness folded their arms and pouted as though they were being dejected. Judy paid them no mind and entered the back door of the precinct. The first thing she wanted to do, and really the only thing, was go and say hello to her best friend running the front desk. "Benji? How ya doing?"

A fat, smiling cheetah turned towards her voice and looked down. "Hey, girly! How was patrol today?" He asked with a flair of femininity in his voice.

"Boring as ever. I know it's a good thing, but nothing happens anymore. What I wouldn't give to be able to cuff a decently sized mammal again," Judy joked as Clawhauser laughed.

He snorted as a funny thought occurred to him. "Yeah. Maybe you could liberate some moldy onions from the paws of a wolf this time."

Judy frowned at that joke. It had become a running one among the officers and staff of Precinct One about how their star cop started her career by stopping the petty thief Duke Weaselton from successfully stealing a sack of twelve midnicampum holicithius which Chief Bogo had misconstrued as molded onions. "You aren't funny, Clawhauser. That- that was not funny."

The passing Officer Wolfard inserted his opinion. "Everybody else seems to think it is."

"Oh, shut up Finn!" Judy called out as Clawhauser shared a high five with the lupine.

Officer Wolfard smirked as he walked away. He turned back to Clawhauser one more time to ask a question. "Hey, Benji? Where's the new hire working at?"

"Oh, she's down in records. I talked to her today. She's very nice. And very cool about her new job," Clawhauser said in a happy voice.

Judy asked, "When did she apply?"

"About a week ago, I think. She's really good though. From what Lisa was telling me at lunch, things in records are already a lot livelier and a lot less disorganized. Now, of course, records has always been well to do in the organization department but the things I have heard are like, wow! Apparently, the whole of records is just changing before their very eyes! And…"

"Clawhauser!" Judy had to almost shout to get his attention. "Thank you. I think I understand. I need to go clock Nick and myself out and then get ready to go. I'll see you later, Benj."

She had not noticed that Wolfard was still in the foyer and was unprepared for him to speak again. "Precious. Although, he could just clock himself out, couldn't he? I guess I get it though. Couples generally do small things for each other like that."

Already annoyed by the remarks from Nala and Shenzi-Marie, Judy pointed absently down a hallway and said, "Ooh, Finn. A tennis ball just rolled down that way."

"What?" Wolfard asked in confusion. Once he realized he had been ridiculed, he looked back to Judy and put on a disappointed face. "Oh, come on. I know you can do better than that, Kicker!" he called out after her.

Judy just waved nonchalantly back at him and entered the girls' locker room. Inside were Francine Pennington and Nala. They seemed to be engaged in some sort of conversation. "Hey, girls. What's up?" she asked with a yawn.

Francine waved with a smile and Nala was first to speak. "Shenzi-Marie just left, but she was telling us about something. Did you know that we got a new hire?"

Thinking back to the words that she, Wolfard and Clawhauser had shared, Judy nodded. "Yeah. Some girl working in records. What about her?"

"Well, apparently, she is some sort of gorgeous. Shenzi said that she could give Cindy Clawford a run for her money. She's supposedly very elegant," Nala explained.

Judy nodded with an impressed expression and sat down to remove her uniform pants and put on some more casual leggings. She did the same with her top, unbuttoning it and replacing it with a pink t-shirt. She spoke as she did this. "What's her name?"

Nala shrugged. "We couldn't figure out how to pronounce it. Shenzi told us, but even she thought she got it wrong."

"Yeah," Francine interjected, "it was something like Proserphone or something."

A laugh came from Judy as she pulled the shirt over her ears. "Oh, lovely. A crazy new name. Man, why can't city folk ever just stick to the traditional names?"

Francine shook her head. "Oh, she isn't from around here, shorty."

"Yeah. She's from a city in the south countries. Some place called Novas Margéns. Her name is definitely not common up here. According to what Shenzi said, it's not that common where she comes from either," Nala said.

"Huh. At least she's exotic. What else has Shenzi rooted out of her?" Judy asked in a joking tone.

"Not much. She's pretty reserved. Not very talkative from what we hear," Francine said.

"Interesting," Judy said. Curiosity bit at her more and more. She wanted to meet this mysterious girl. Maybe she would be something to write home about.